Shipping March 28th, 2007

Hi there folks. These are the comics that are scheduled to ship to The Beguiling Books & Art in Toronto, Canada this week. These books may not show up at all retailers at the same time, but if you see a title here itâ€™s probably at least worth asking your local retailer aboutâ€¦Â

Kind of a small week this week, overall, but there are some really solid books on the list. This looks to be the week that DramaQueen finally starts shipping their manga through Diamond, though due to Canadian customs issues I have no idea if any of their titles besides Audition are going to ship. But as far as graphic novels go, there are a couple of solid, high-profile releases worth noting.

OCT060027Â ALICE IN SUNDERLAND GN (C: 0-1-2)Â 29.95This is the new graphic novel by Bryan Talbot, but between the digitally painted cover art and the solicitation text that doesn’t actually say anything at all, I have no idea what this is actually going to be. It sounds completely outside of Talbot’s ouevre, at least so far as I’m familiar with it, and at least the solicit text is helpful enough to say that it’s “like no graphic novel before it”, so perhaps I’m not alone in feeling lost. The Beguiling is set to be doing an even with Mr. Talbot in April, which admittedly makes me even more anxious about this one, as we have an awful lot of fans of One Bad Rat looking forward to this new book and I’ve no idea whatsoever if it will appeal…

Just a heads-up, the second printings on these titles areÂ in fact shipping this week.Â We’re now out of our reorder of Buffy first prints, and probably a day or two away from sold-out on the Captain America #25s.

JAN073666Â HOUDINI HANDCUFF KING CENTER OF CARTOON STUDIES HCÂ 16.99The first ‘work for hire’ from The Centre for Cartoon Studies makes it’s debut this week, a graphic novella on the life of Harry Houdini. Call it ‘confluence’ if you like, but this morning there was a feature on the news about the mysterious death of Houdini, and a new examination of it. Coupled with the popularity of modern day illusionists like David Blaine and Criss Angel, not to mention films like The Illusionist and The Prestige, and I think there might just be a groundswell of interest in this material, so good on Hyperion for being just at the top of the curve there.

The work is illustrated by Nick Bertozzi over layouts from Jason Lutes, and Lutes’ early graphic novel Jar Of Fools features themes of illusion and Houdini, making for a nice companion-piece to this new work. Bertozzi also has a controversial graphic novel named The Salon coming out later this year; my employer has read it and says it’s outstanding. So, confluence being what it is, it looks like a heck of a lot of factors are going to go into making this one a success. Let’s see if I call it correctly or not…

NOV063528Â OH SKINNAY HCÂ 24.95I’ve had a chance to see this and it’s a lovely book; a new edition of the original lovingly restored by Drawn & Quarterly. I’ve read about 20 pages and it’s just sort of… lovely. A gentle, affectionate celebration of youth. Also, in the vein of D&Q’s lovely Gasoline Alley reprints, this edition features an excellent afterword on cartoonist Claire Briggs that will be of note to classic cartooning fans. Actually, I may as well just steal the photo from the Drawn & Quarterly blog:

FEB070001Â PREVIEWS VOL XVII #4 (NET)Â 4.50It’s Previews time again… I think I’m going to do a Previews Review on this if it kills me. Hopefully it won’t. As for the covers? Fear Agent and Sinestro Corps. At least one of them is creator-owned…

JAN073851Â TACTICS VOL 1 GN (OF 8)Â 9.99Giving hope to manga fans, TACTICS is one of the many manga started by ADV and then abandoned after a volume or two, when ADV figured out they didn’t know what the hell they were doing, and now it’s back! From Tokyopop! Rejoice! Maybe ADV will finally drop the license for Yotsuba, and a publisher who actually, you know, publishes, will put out volumes 4 through 6. And maybe a new printing of 1-3… that certainly wouldn’t hurt…

I’m doing the rewrite for Tokyopop’s re-release of Tactics, and it sound like people really like our Volume 1. We’re trying to not only continue Tactics, but improve upon the ADV version of the first two volumes (not that I have anything against ADV, mind you ^_^). Tactics fans are getting special love this year.